Most Heartless Business Executive

The grocery industry has some hard-nosed business executives and tough negotiators, cold and hardened by years of running rough-shod over suppliers and manufacturers.

This retailer would send their buyers out to restaurants and train them to toughen up by continually sending food back at the restaurant and negotiating not to pay the bill, after humiliating the staff and the management, for no other reason other than to toughen them up for negotiation with suppliers and manufacturers.

They had several ‘real life training scenarios’ they had to engage in, to toughen up for the position. They had to bully their way into a situation on purpose and destroy any opposition and come out of the situation better off. Paying for nothing and so called ‘winning.’

Another one of their ‘training scenarios’ was to go into a busy department store and request a discount, and not to leave until they had achieved their goal. The scenario would play out as per the below.

“Hi there I would like a 15% discount.”

“Sir, I am not sure that is how it works.”

“Bring me your manager. I want to speak to someone who actually can make decisions.”

The above comment is designed to diminish the power of the person with whom they are negotiating.

The manager appears.

“Right, I am told that you are the person who has authority around here?”

This comment elevates the person and makes them seem like they have a duty.

“Yes sir, however it is not company policy to offer discounts.”

“Here is my card, check my account and tell me how much I have spent with you since I became a member.”

There are two tactics here. If his spend is high, the negotiator will use this and threaten the manager with closing his account, and inform the manager’s CEO of such a closure of his account.

If the spend is low, he will use this by stating that his spend with their competition is much higher, and the reason is that he receives discounts from them, given to him by their manager. Making this manager seem impotent when compared to his equal in the competitor.

The strategy was always to perform such a negotiation in front of a lot of customers to increase the pressure on the manager and the department store.

Department store employees do not want confrontation, so the louder and more brash and confident the conversation, the more likely he will get what he wants.

This is how they trained these buyers. So with this as background. It was several years back, while I was working for this large retailer in the grocery industry, that one of the board members of this company, a multimillionaire, took his cold hearted negotiation to another level.

They had a saying at this retailer where I worked. ‘You either work here two weeks, two years or twenty years.’

I remained two years, as it was a tough culture and I tired of the heartless ways this company operated.

You may wonder why I have a picture of a cute little fluffy dog? Because it was a similar little cute fluffy dog that would be the subject of this cold and heartless executive’s negotiation. His negotiation was with his local veterinary clinic, where his wife had asked him to take their dog.

Their dog was suffering from some injury and needed surgery. The little dog was in pain. The little pet was his wife’s dog. He cared little for the dog, from what I heard.

This was his cold-hearted interaction with the veterinary surgeon.

“Hi There, there is something wrong with our dog, and he is in pain, can you check him out?”

The vet replied after looking at the dog and doing a visual assessment.

“Sir, I think we need to run some scans and he will probably need surgery from what I can see. This condition, if left, can be fatal, not to mention the little guy is in pain.”

“What will the scans and surgery cost?”

“It will cost you about $2000.”

“What will be the cost to have the dog put down?”

“About $10.”

“Right, I am paying $10, you decide what you want to do with the dog.”

This took place in front of customers at the front desk of the veterinary clinic. The vet was now in a position where he had to look heartless and put the dog down or look caring and do the procedures at $10.”

The Buyer didn’t care that the customers there would think he was a despicable person. They had hardened him from years of negotiation training in the retail game.

The vet was a good person and completed the scans and surgery for $10.

He came back to the office and bragged about his achievement with ‘high fives’ all around. To think that this man was a multimillionaire and could easily have afforded the treatment for the little dog. But as the saying goes ‘You can’t buy class.’

I was astounded when I heard of such a cold-hearted negotiation. Leaving that company was one of the happiest days in my career.